478f848f$1@news.povray.org...
> False.

Frankly, I have a hard time believing that anyone who has done a minimal 
amount of reading on Apple or OSS never saw those names on screen or on 
paper. Stallman is cited *** 13 times *** in the GPL article in Wikipedia. 
Jobs is cited *** 55 times *** in the Apple article. These guys are legends 
in computing, warts and all. And the names don't ring any sort of bell to 
you?

> 2. [But with custom chipsets, BIOS, etc.] And I'm aware that Apple is rare 
> but has a niche following in some parts. I just don't know who this Steve 
> Jobs person is... (Does it matter?)

Jobs and Stallman have been major influential figures in your area of 
business/trade/expertise/whatever for more than 20 years. What they say and 
what they do has a direct influence in what you (and millions of other 
people, developers or not) do and on the way you work. Understanding (or 
trying to understand...) the philosophy that drives Stallman is a key to 
understand the GPL and the open source movement. Ditto for Jobs and what 
drives Apple. So yes, it does matter. I mean, I'm a specialist in cow and 
pig feeding and it matters to me.

In any case, the point is that showing your ignorance about things as basic 
as those can make a potential employer wonder about your overall technical 
and learning abilities, no matter how good those abilities actually are.

G.

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